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Show Notes for Podcast 28: Carbs Count, But How? Understanding Net Carbs vs. Total Carbs

You may be confused regarding net carbs versus total carbs. So let’s demystify it. Shall we. Keep listening.

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I see it online all the time. Total carbs or net carbs. I also see are you strict keto, lazy keto, dirty keto? What’s your daily carb limit? What are your macros? But particularly Total carbs or net carbs.

I am all for anything that works for the individual, but I fear that this kind of focus on micromanagement may scare some people off.

Total Carbs or Net Carbs

The controversy is on a par with the great sweetener wars. As usual, I have opinions, so let me air them.

The first commercially successful low-carb diet book was Banting’s Letter on Corpulence first published in 1863 at William Banting’s own expense. It was such a success that Banting became a synonym for dieting and Professor Tim Noakes has revived the term in South Africa.

Banting stated, “My kind and valued medical advisor is not a doctor for obesity, but stands on the pinnacle of fame in the treatment of another malady, which as he well knows is frequently induced by Corpulence.”

Banting’s diet was four meals per day consisting of meat, greens, fruits and dry wine. The emphasis was on avoiding sugar, starch, beer, milk, butter, and saccharin matter. Here, saccharin matter refers to anything that turns to sugar in the bloodstream. The artificial sweetener we call saccharin had yet to be invented.

Notice something, no mention of counting carbs, much less total versus net carbs. Just eat meat, green vegetables, fruits and dry wine. The diet worked for Banting and for many others.

I have on my shelf a book I found when I was cleaning out my late great-Aunt Betty’s house called Eat and Grow Thin; the Mahdah Menus published in 1914. It too outlined a low carbohydrate diet. It too calls for no counting. When I was growing up, everyone knew that if you wanted to lose weight, you gave up potatoes, spaghetti, bread, and sweets, and focused on animal protein and green vegetables. Every diner and coffee shop offered a diet plate consisting of a bunless hamburger patty, a scoop of cottage cheese and either sliced tomatoes or a half a canned peach.

Some people also counted calories, but limiting starches and sugars was de rigueur and steak and salad was a standard diet meal for a long time. It still is for me. As I write this, I have a belly full of pork shoulder steak and coleslaw. But bodies vary and some people need a more restricted diet.

Enter the Stillman Diet

In 1967, Dr. Irwin Stillman’s diet was both very low carb and low fat calling for almost nothing but very lean meat, plus at least eight glasses of water per day. Having tried it as a kid, I can attest to it being effective, but too limited for continued use.

Enter Dr. Atkins and Counting Carbs

Dana Carpender’s first book she read about the Low-Carb lifestyle was Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution.

I trust we can take it as read that the Atkins diet works by liberalizing fat and including some vegetables and those in increasing quantities. As the diet progressed, the Atkins diet was and remains far more livable than Stillman’s.

The concept of net carbs was introduced in the 1996 book, Protein Power by Doctors Michael and Mary Dan Eades.

Originally, it was simply this, since the human gut can neither digest nor absorb fiber, which is a carbohydrate, they allowed the dieter to subtract the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbohydrate. Dr. Atkins later picked up on this concept as well. This struck me as a good idea. It still does, but you know how people are, show them a loophole and they will do every damned thing to blow it wide open.

This is especially true of the food processing industry and the carb addicts they serve, and so we had companies claiming that we could subtract all sorts of. Things. Sugar alcohols resistant starches, even fructose. One particularly egregious low carb food manufacturer referred and refers to fructose as “low glycemic monosaccharide.”

It is indeed that, and it is most definitely a carbohydrate that is digested and absorbed. It is also worse for you than sucrose. Pretty soon net carb counts, especially on packaged foods were pure fiction. Dreamfields wound up getting sued for $8 million because of false claims that their pasta had only five net carbs per serving.

Many people got confused more than a few times. I have seen people suggest that they could neutralize eating a high carb food by also taking a bunch of fiber with it. No kids taking Metamucil with your tiramisu does not counteract the carbs. Also, European food labels differ from American food labels. American food labels include the grams of fiber in the total carb count, breaking out fiber and sugar grams below. European labels generally do not include fiber grams in total carb grams, so subtracting them out yields a misleadingly low total. No wonder so many people, including doctors I respect, are insisting on going by total carb counts.

This not only rules out most processed low carb foods, but also restricts even things like non-starchy vegetables. Again, some people need this. I have known people who had to drop below 10 grams of total carb per day to lose. Two. If you’re a medicated diabetic, it is vital to know how many carbs you eat.

But does everyone, for many of us, simply eschewing concentrated carbs, a la, William Banting does the trick. So long as we don’t fall for tons of processed low carb foods. By way of example, I rarely weigh or measure anything. I just center my diet on animal protein, low carb vegetables, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats, while as chewing grains, potatoes, sugars, and most starchy vegetables.

I also lean toward a 16:8 intermittent fasting pattern. Not eating until 11:00 AM that fast on Mondays and most of Tuesdays. I sometimes eat a small, regular low-carb meal at the end of Tuesdays, and I take a combination of herbs that release GLP one in the body. I am 75 pounds smaller than I was when I started 29 years ago.

Andrew, on the other hand, has been far more resistant to weight loss than I. He also feels that years of processed food damaged his body, including his metabolism to repair it. He has gone to a two day fast, one day strict carnivore eating pattern. With this program, he has lost 20 pounds. He doesn’t count much either because his only carbs come from things like garlic powder. When he does count. He counts total carbs.

This underlines the notion of biochemical and metabolic individuality. Worth noting too that I have often been asked how many grams of carbs should I eat in a day? My answer is always, I. How the hell should I know? Again, bodies vary a great deal.

If you want or need a specific number, do as Dr. Atkins and the doctors Eades have recommended. Cut way back for a few weeks. Atkins said 20 grams per day, as do Dr. Eric Westman, Jeff Volek, and Steven Finney in The New Atkins for a New You https://amzn.to/4cTWMbD while the Eades recommend 50 grams per day.

Side note, I knew that Dr. Westman had gone to recommending counting total carbs after recommending net carbs in a new Atkins for a New U, so I asked him about it. Here’s his response:

“For a keto maximal fat burning diet, I view net carbs 20 or less. Like over the counter medication. It can work for many, but not for everybody. Using total carbs 20 or less is prescription strength and will work for almost everyone. It is stricter, but it is also stronger. Also limits keto junk foods that are out there today. So I recommend using Total Carbs.”

That’s Dr. Westman’s take. After those initial few weeks of very low carb, add a few daily grams each week, carbs from vegetables, low sugar, fruits, nuts and seeds, plain Greek yogurt, another low sugar dairy, not processed stuff that may or may not actually be low carb. This is the way to find the carb count that works for you.

Be it total carbs or net carbs, but if simply cutting out starch and sugar results in the weight loss and health improvements you have wanted, I see no need to complicate the matter. I’ll be over here eating my steak and salad. Are you counting net carbs or total carbs or like me not counting at all.

How did you settle on your pattern and is that working for you? Have you changed since you started? And if so, how and why? I. Let us know in the comments below.

As for the recipe, I don’t have to tell you that eggs are currently pricey. Nothing like an epidemic among the chickens To do that while we’re waiting for the new generation of hens to start laying, I thought a recipe that stretches eggs yet tastes and feels indulgent would be just the thing.

Episode 28 Recipe:

So this show we’re linking to Low-Carb Cheese and Mushroom Egg Bake. Wonderful for anything from keeping in the fridge to reheat, one serving at a time. To dazzling the family for Easter breakfast, click on the link below or go to CarbSmart.com/podcast28recipe and enjoy.

Share this podcast with everyone you think might like it because we want more listeners. And don’t forget to like, subscribe and hit that notification bell because you don’t want to miss a single episode. Until next time, stay low carb, happy, and healthy.